Re: NSA able to compromise Cisco, Juniper, Huawei switches

["Dobbins, Roland" <rdobbins () arbor net>]

On Dec 31, 2013, at 12:00 AM, Ray Soucy <rps () maine edu> wrote:

> So this isn't an issue of the NSA working with Cisco and Juniper to include back doors, it's an issue of the NSA 
> modifying those releases after the fact though BIOS implants.

Yes, I see this now, thanks.

AFAICT, the Cisco boxes listed are ASAs and PIXes, which are essentially Linux PCs running a bunch of userland firewall 
stuff and which have BIOSes and so forth; they aren't routers/switches.  I don't know much about Juniper gear, but it 
appears that the Juniper boxes listed are similar in nature, albeit running FreeBSD underneath (correction welcome).  I 
know nothing at all about Huawei gear.

Compromising PCs with persistent malware/rootkits is pretty routine, so this isn't really surprising, IMHO.

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Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () arbor net> // <http://www.arbornetworks.com>

          Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

                       -- John Milton